We're very excited to announce to you that Network54 V3 is ready for public testing. Keep in mind that it's very beta right now, and that documentation and help files are forthcoming. Some things are incomplete and you're bound to run into bugs as well. Just a word of caution.
We also recommend that you upgrade to a newer browser (at least IE7 or Firefox 3).
V3 isn't really Network54 at all. In fact, we're going to keep Network54 as is at least in the near future. We're not going to automatically upgrade anyone's sites to V3, and you can expect that Network54 will continue to run as it has since 1999.
Our V3 software supports all the features of a modern forum system (i.e. Stickies!), plus a few other goodies. We've included blogs and pages as well, so you can build an entire site using V3.
We looked at what message boards were, and how we thought we could improve them using a unique approach. For example, we added fast user switching meaning you can be logged in to multiple accounts at the same time, and switch between them quickly.
We also added a live theme editor. This means that you edit your theme directly on your site (the cog icon at the top right of each page when you're logged in as a manager). While the theme editor is currently a little tricky to use, we'll be launching a new version of it soon that should be much easier.
Rather than V3 being one site that spans a multitude of interests, we've decided to create multiple sites that match your specific interest groups that have become popular here at Network54.
Each of these sites, right now, is a "blank slate" that we want to develop with their own unique personalities over time. And since we haven't created everything, we're launching a general hosting site (like Network54) as well, based on V3.
Now, to the sites!
Visigroups
http://www.visigroups.com
Visigroups is the general forum hosting site I mentioned above. If your forums don't fit into any of the sites below, we suggest you use Visigroups.
Playgrouper
http://www.playgrouper.com
Playgrouper is for Playgroups! Weve noticed that Playgroups have become very popular at Network54, so we created a playgrouping site just for you!
Rawkr
http://www.rawkr.net
Weve seen a lot of people create band sites at Network54, as well as fans creating their own sites for their favorite bands. So we created Rawkr.net to host your own band or fan site.
Guildr
http://www.guildr.com
As online gaming has become very popular, specifically MMOs such as World of Warcraft, etc. we decided to create a site for organizing your own online guilds.
MinorLeagueSports.net and Leaguer.co.uk
http://www.minorleaguesports.net
http://www.leaguer.co.uk
Minor league sport discussions (i.e. hockey) and UK sports league groups are another category thats become very popular at Network54, so MinorLeagueSports and Leaguer are the place to be to host your own sports club discussions.
To see V3 in action, Ive posted
a few brief screencasts over at Visigroups.
And, of course, we're sure you'll have plenty of questions about V3. So please ask them here (itll help keep this bumped up!), or post them in the community section area of each site.
Chris Moser
network54.com
